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By many indicators, Greece is devolving into something unprecedented in modern Western experience. A quarter of all Greek companies have gone out of business since 2009, and half of all small businesses in the country say they are unable to meet payroll. The suicide rate increased by 40 percent in the first half of 2011. A barter economy has sprung up, as people try to work around a broken financial system. Nearly half the population under 25 is unemployed. Last September, organizers of a government-sponsored seminar on emigrating to Australia, an event that drew 42 people a year earlier, were overwhelmed when 12,000 people signed up. Greek bankers told me that people had taken about one-third of their money out of their accounts; many, it seems, were keeping what savings they had under their beds or buried in their backyards. One banker, part of whose job these days is persuading people to keep their money in the bank, said to me, “Who would trust a Greek bank?”

The situation at the macro level is, if anything, even more transformational. The Chinese have largely taken over Piraeus, Greece’s main port, with an eye to make it a conduit for shipping goods into Europe. Qatar is looking to invest $5 billion in various projects in Greece, including tourism infrastructure. Other, relatively flush Europeans are trying to make “Greece the Florida of Europe,” Theodore Pelagidis, a Greek economist at the University of Piraeus, told me, referring in particular to plans to turn islands into expensive retirement homes for wealthy people from other parts of the continent. Whether or not the country pays its debts, he went on, other nations and foreign companies “now understand the Greek government is powerless, so in the future they will take over viable assets and run parts of the country by themselves.”

For months, Greece has sat at the epicenter of an economic crisis that is threatening the foundations of Europe and that has the potential to bring new waves of economic upset to America. The latest austerity plan meant to satisfy Greece’s creditors and allow for new infusions of financial aid may have averted involuntary default — and a global economic downturn — but will nonetheless make life for ordinary Greeks even more difficult. The plan reduces the minimum wage by more than 20 percent, mandates thousands of layoffs and reduces some pensions, probably ensuring that strikes and demonstrations will continue to be a feature of the Greek landscape.

[...]

As usual, the New York Times is at its most commendable when it, and the USA, has no direct political stake to fight over, only good journalism to work on. This piece collects the journalist's experiences with individual Greeks and their families and how they're weathering the crisis. It really reveals the sense of reality in how people, hardworking, ordinary people, are victimized by systems which they cannot see, trends they cannot perceive, problems beyond their comprehension and the corrupt bargains of an elite they cannot, so far, depose. They work hard, they live their lives, dream their little dreams, and perhaps take some advantage of easy things at hand, not knowing what sort of devil's deal they were signing into. I am not sure what kind of Greece will come out of it, scorched, ruined, half-owned by China, or sunny as ever still, except that it will be a country of economists, where the taxi driver in Athens can teach you a thing or two about European economic data. They are forced to learn what most people in every country do not have to learn.

I cannot, in all honesty, blame the Greek people for the crisis, despite all the slurs of laziness and greed, even in the comment section of this very article. I can blame the Greek government, the Greek politicians, the Greek elite, the European financial elite, even Wall Street and the culture of greed it inflicts upon the world. But not the people. They are taking responsibilities already, just by living their everyday lives and struggling to move on. Even now they are still under an albatross, and however hard they work and however much they save, their fates will be decided in Brussels, in Berlin, in London, even in New York City -- in the hands of the people who read humans only as economic data, investments as numbers, and who are probably most responsible for everything that's going on there.

Last edited by Irenicus; 2012-02-20 at 01:14.
Reason: News article included

Otherwise, no I wouldn't register my car and none of my guns are registered and never will be.

If I had the money I'd mount one of these in bed my truck.

From the Las Vegas Nevada "Shot Show" Jan 2011.

That is a 40mm automatic grenade launcher right? Do you know how destructive they are? Why do you need one of those?

Oh right. Road hogs.

__________________

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

It's amazing how they can infest a field
Shooting them with a rifle is like "whack-a-mole," after the first shot they all hide.
Now a 40 milimeter would take care of that problem...hole or no hole.
Blow those little suckers right out of the ground.

It's amazing how they can infest a field
Shooting them with a rifle is like "whack-a-mole," after the first shot they all hide.
Now a 40 milimeter would take care of that problem...hole or no hole.
Blow those little suckers right out of the ground.

Load them with XM1060 thermobaric grenades and you will have no more road to drive again.

__________________

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

Though actually Las Vegas is big enough to contain subversive liberal elements coexisting with the mega-casinos and the gun ranges. Minorities, immigrants, college students (...I happen to be all three).

The usual argument is that if the "government" knows where all the guns are, then either them (or usurping authority) now knows exactly where to go to disarm the public.

And we do know many governments in the world love an unarmed populace for less than noble reasons.

The flip argument of this is its nice for the RCMP to know when the wife beating prick they're going to be up against might be armed.

Distrust of the state isn't as big a value in Canadian politics as American, except among the Conservative Party base (which is why this went through). It may help that few people in this country see the Canadian state as possessing much in the way of coercive power.

Though actually Las Vegas is big enough to contain subversive liberal elements coexisting with the mega-casinos and the gun ranges. Minorities, immigrants, college students (...I happen to be all three).

I thought you were one of those lolicon gambling gods who hurl skin-slicing playing cards at mobsters, then use that "heroic" image to bribe little girls with marshmallow mahjong tiles.

Joking. I thought you are a resident of US of A throughout your entire life.

From what you have said though, Las Vegas sounds like a Prohibition Chicago today.

__________________

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

Though actually Las Vegas is big enough to contain subversive liberal elements coexisting with the mega-casinos and the gun ranges. Minorities, immigrants, college students (...I happen to be all three).

^Eh, not really. I am not fond of the gun crimes rate in Vegas, and certainly don't want to be a victim of one.

But as for Mr. Krugman, think of him as a very, very smart economist who has had enough with what his peers were doing to America that he "comes down" to become a regular columnist. He tends to be very bitter with the current state of affairs, uncompromisingly common-sensical, and not a single article of his online goes by without someone flaming him, but the United States would do much better if more people listen to the man.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

I thought you were one of those lolicon gambling gods who hurl skin-slicing playing cards at mobsters, then use that "heroic" image to bribe little girls with marshmallow mahjong tiles.

Spoiler for Off Topic:

Alas, the casinos are really more full of deadbeat adults and tourists, which can range from partying twenty-somethings to older couples and many, many foreigners. No mobsters here, at least the ones that have tommy guns and cool suits.

Corporate suits, plenty. Gangs -- don't quote me, but I think downtown's got some, not that that's any different from your typical American city. Gambling gods and mafia -- eh, no mysterious, awesome Akagi's around here. Either you get banned by the casinos, which gets you out for life (and probably force you to go into one of those really shady "underground" places *I* most certainly don't know about), or you get by being a player in one of those unbelievably boring poker tournaments. It's hard to even get killed for gambling too well these days!

You think big crime today in Vegas, don't think mobsters and romero's, think real estate bubble and property scams. Bankster crimes. Remember that the epicenter of the 2008 housing crisis is right here, alongside California, and there's a reason for that.

But otherwise you can imagine the geography of Las Vegas as a huge, flat, dry valley surrounded by mountains, with a small core of really shiny world famous mega-hotels/casinos surrounded by a massive suburban sprawl in every direction. And there's the Hoover Dam and its accompanying lake out to the East not too far from the city fueling the overgrown decadence with water and electricity.

I'll admit, it can be very pretty at night in the "Strip" core, even when one is utterly used to it like I am. And for all the snide remarks on the megastructures as gloriously decadent modern-day temples of greed (let's make a concrete jungle out of a desert! How sustainable do you think it's gonna be?), they serve as excellent platforms for a lively performing arts scene. Performers in the United States have major job locations at Broadway, Hollywood...and Las Vegas.

But as for myself and the Eagle Empire, I'm American and also not really: I reserve the right to laugh at the Americans without automatically laughing at myself, extremely convenient I tell you. Moreover, I most certainly don't give a flying flick about the Star-Spangled Banner (I'd really rather stand for the Imperial March, goddammit), Superbowl, or the USA chants, but that doesn't mean one isn't American just because one rejects these meaningless patriotic symbols; I seem to be, after all, enough of an American liberal that you assumed so.

Do continue to assume I am infinitely more awesome than this forum can possibly express, though. See the proud, exotically handsome gentleman looking down on you in my avatar from his colorful, extraordinary existence? He may not be me, but he's certainly expressing my attitude.